Today is the day. We're about to leave to head up to the farm. Wooo hoo!
TTFN
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Abundance is Natural
Abundance is Natural, normal, the usual state of affairs, to be expected.
Bucky Fuller was an engineer, one of those folk trained to apply numbers and equations to matter and energy and create things like bridges and skyscrapers and planes and things. He wasn't a philosopher.
He calculated that, by sometime in the mid 1970s, we would be able to pay for our entire life's resource usage with only about two years worth of work. That is, if we were to apply the available (and ever-increasing) scientific knowledge of how to meet human needs with greater and greater efficiency, we could arrange things such that you would only have to work for about two years and then you could retire, having more than paid for yourself for the rest of your natural lifespan.
This is not a utopian vision; not a pie-in-the-sky pipe dream. This is a hard-nosed projection from an engineer who had taken the time to actually check things out from what I would consider to be a nearly fully sane perspective.
The microprocessor, our advances in materials science, and indeed all science, and the ever-increasing synergy between different interacting areas of knowledge make it inevitable that we will develop the ability to meet all our needs without a lifetime of work. (Not that work is bad, quite the contrary. It it the freedom from the necessity of drudgery that we should laud.)
With Permaculture we already have developed a "technology" that can bring material abundance to whomever practices it. In a regenerative garden that increases biomass as it provides for its resident gardeners there is every reason to expect the arrangement to be stable for at least several thousands of years.
We have all the technology we need already (except some medical advances to address certain diseases and human regeneration) and all of our problems now are psychological or spiritual, not physical.
I don't mean to suggest that we should stop creating new technology, only that
we are safe as far as having the tools we need to save ourselves. We have to learn to apply them to take care of everybody, and that's going to take love and compassion. But if we're willing to work with love and compassion for the betterment of everyone everywhere we can swiftly and easily change the world forever.
Bucky Fuller was an engineer, one of those folk trained to apply numbers and equations to matter and energy and create things like bridges and skyscrapers and planes and things. He wasn't a philosopher.
He calculated that, by sometime in the mid 1970s, we would be able to pay for our entire life's resource usage with only about two years worth of work. That is, if we were to apply the available (and ever-increasing) scientific knowledge of how to meet human needs with greater and greater efficiency, we could arrange things such that you would only have to work for about two years and then you could retire, having more than paid for yourself for the rest of your natural lifespan.
This is not a utopian vision; not a pie-in-the-sky pipe dream. This is a hard-nosed projection from an engineer who had taken the time to actually check things out from what I would consider to be a nearly fully sane perspective.
The microprocessor, our advances in materials science, and indeed all science, and the ever-increasing synergy between different interacting areas of knowledge make it inevitable that we will develop the ability to meet all our needs without a lifetime of work. (Not that work is bad, quite the contrary. It it the freedom from the necessity of drudgery that we should laud.)
With Permaculture we already have developed a "technology" that can bring material abundance to whomever practices it. In a regenerative garden that increases biomass as it provides for its resident gardeners there is every reason to expect the arrangement to be stable for at least several thousands of years.
We have all the technology we need already (except some medical advances to address certain diseases and human regeneration) and all of our problems now are psychological or spiritual, not physical.
I don't mean to suggest that we should stop creating new technology, only that
we are safe as far as having the tools we need to save ourselves. We have to learn to apply them to take care of everybody, and that's going to take love and compassion. But if we're willing to work with love and compassion for the betterment of everyone everywhere we can swiftly and easily change the world forever.
Packing for the Move Tomorrow
I'm currently packing to move up to the farm. It's not as nerve-wracking as most moves would be since I have very little other than some books and clothes. Nonetheless, I am a terrible packer and it will take me all day to fill what will eventually be less than five boxes. LOL
Monday, May 30, 2011
The Neighborhood as Unit of Abundance-Fostering (Part 1)
I used to think I wanted to be a hermit, or found a colony somewhere on sustainable and egalitarian lines.
When I first came across Christopher Alexander's Living Neighborhoods site I realized that what I really wanted was to live in a cool neighborhood where energy capture, food growing, and waste reclaimation were carried out locally in sustainable (read Permacultural) ways and where my neighbors shared my values (and sense of joie de vivre.)
I'm not a political radical. I'm content—truly, deeply content—with our democratic system. That may seem a strange thing to say in this polarized time but I know enough history to know how good we've got it. I feel that we have all the clout and influence we need, at least on a local scale, to affect how our neighborhoods are governed, so I don't feel any pressing need to found or join a community on those grounds.
But I do think that retrofitting say, a block, or even just a street, in a modern city would be prohibitively expensive, and the only feasible way to build a sustainable neighborhood rapidly is, therefore, from the ground up.
I don't know that Wendy and Peter of Lone Tree Farm want to go so far as to have a whole neighborhood of people living with them, but they do want to expand the educational aspects of the farm and I hope there will be a role there for the "Pattern Language" techniques.
Prof. Alexander's "Pattern Language" concept is a fascinating fractal library of living geometric architectural patterns which, he asserts (with evidence and applications), can be used to evolve dynamic living buildings in situ by their inhabitants. The Living Neighborhoods site has extended this building process to encompass neighborhood construction and growth.
Whether or not you use Prof. Alexander's techniques, I think there's a huge advantage to creating Permaculture patterns at the scale of neighborhoods rather than single-family residences or farms. Even Lone Tree Farm with their hundred-plus acres would be able to more effectively modify the valley their property straddles if they could do so with the cooperation of their neighbors who share it.
Thriving neighborhoods, integrated with Nature, are the best bet for long-term survival, wealth building, and abundance.
When I first came across Christopher Alexander's Living Neighborhoods site I realized that what I really wanted was to live in a cool neighborhood where energy capture, food growing, and waste reclaimation were carried out locally in sustainable (read Permacultural) ways and where my neighbors shared my values (and sense of joie de vivre.)
I'm not a political radical. I'm content—truly, deeply content—with our democratic system. That may seem a strange thing to say in this polarized time but I know enough history to know how good we've got it. I feel that we have all the clout and influence we need, at least on a local scale, to affect how our neighborhoods are governed, so I don't feel any pressing need to found or join a community on those grounds.
But I do think that retrofitting say, a block, or even just a street, in a modern city would be prohibitively expensive, and the only feasible way to build a sustainable neighborhood rapidly is, therefore, from the ground up.
I don't know that Wendy and Peter of Lone Tree Farm want to go so far as to have a whole neighborhood of people living with them, but they do want to expand the educational aspects of the farm and I hope there will be a role there for the "Pattern Language" techniques.
Prof. Alexander's "Pattern Language" concept is a fascinating fractal library of living geometric architectural patterns which, he asserts (with evidence and applications), can be used to evolve dynamic living buildings in situ by their inhabitants. The Living Neighborhoods site has extended this building process to encompass neighborhood construction and growth.
Whether or not you use Prof. Alexander's techniques, I think there's a huge advantage to creating Permaculture patterns at the scale of neighborhoods rather than single-family residences or farms. Even Lone Tree Farm with their hundred-plus acres would be able to more effectively modify the valley their property straddles if they could do so with the cooperation of their neighbors who share it.
Thriving neighborhoods, integrated with Nature, are the best bet for long-term survival, wealth building, and abundance.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
I'm a Little Scared
It is just one week until I move to the Pony Farm. I'll be leaving behind the amenities (however environmentally disastrous) of the city and trading them for the (perhaps romanticized) glories of the country life. Have I really thought this through?
It's a funny question: I've wanted to do this all my life, been thinking about it for over two decades, how could I be anything other than totally stoked?
Well, right now I am drinking a cup of coffee. The store where I bought the beans is just three blocks away. (It's a "Trader Joe's" which is a chain of really incredible grocery stores that stock great organic food. Something nice to have three blocks away.)
I ground the beans fresh in an electric grinder and cooked them in an electric coffee maker that also keeps the pot warm. I'm on a computer plugged into the wall, using a router and cable modem, plugged into the wall, to write this blog post over a high speed internet connection, which is also plugged into the wall.
Now there is electricity available at the farm, and internet too, but the juice comes from solar panels and a micro-hydro turbine and is stored in batteries in a shed, and the internet comes through a satellite uplink and has definite bandwidth (and lag) limits.
I actually want to live within these resource limits, at least I think I do, but I haven't actually done it yet and I find myself not without some degree of trepidation.
Of course, I have only to consider the millions (billions! *shudder*) who live without the luxuries I'll have on the farm:
But I will miss my roommate's DVD collection. ;)
It's a funny question: I've wanted to do this all my life, been thinking about it for over two decades, how could I be anything other than totally stoked?
Well, right now I am drinking a cup of coffee. The store where I bought the beans is just three blocks away. (It's a "Trader Joe's" which is a chain of really incredible grocery stores that stock great organic food. Something nice to have three blocks away.)
I ground the beans fresh in an electric grinder and cooked them in an electric coffee maker that also keeps the pot warm. I'm on a computer plugged into the wall, using a router and cable modem, plugged into the wall, to write this blog post over a high speed internet connection, which is also plugged into the wall.
Now there is electricity available at the farm, and internet too, but the juice comes from solar panels and a micro-hydro turbine and is stored in batteries in a shed, and the internet comes through a satellite uplink and has definite bandwidth (and lag) limits.
I actually want to live within these resource limits, at least I think I do, but I haven't actually done it yet and I find myself not without some degree of trepidation.
Of course, I have only to consider the millions (billions! *shudder*) who live without the luxuries I'll have on the farm:
- Fresh water (from a spring!)
- Healthy food (organic and just picked)
- Clean air (rural setting just inland from the Pacific Ocean)
- Internet (however limited)
- Nearby to all the amenities of modern civilization: Hospitals, Universities, Libraries, Museums, Theaters and Arts thingys, heck, even malls.
- Distant from all the crappy bits of modern civilization.
- Ponies!
- Self-determination (i.e. on both a personal and community level our civilization, at least around here, supports a responsible and self-determined life.)
But I will miss my roommate's DVD collection. ;)
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Toby Hemenway Video
Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia's Garden, gave a great lecture at Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and they have made the video available on Youtube:
It's about an hour. Here are some notes I took:
- He reframes "sustainable" as the midpoint of a spectrum with "degenerative" on one side and "regenerative" on the other and emphasizes regenerative systems.
- He talks about the length of time we (humans) have been doing "culture" (group activites, pottery, art, singing and music, etc.) and points out that it's roughly a million (1,000,000) years-- and that agriculture has only been happening for about ten thousand years, about 1% of that time.
- Five culture types based on food getting technology:
- Foraging
- Hunter-gatherer
- Agricultural (cities)
- Pastoral (Animal herding)
- Industrial
- Then follows a great deal of the "dirt" on agriculture. Old hat to those who know it, horrifying and challenging to those who don't. Hemenway sums it up, "Agriculture... ...converts ecosystems into people."
- (Oil => Food => People) x (Peak Oil) = Hoshit! i.e. we made people out of oil for the last few generations and now we are running out of oil. Could be trouble...
- Holmgrin's scenarios:
- Techno-fantasy (technology saves the day and we pack ourselves in like sardines until something else gives, or spew forth and colonize the galaxy until we reach the expansion limits of our space-drives... Technology doesn't solve the problem, only postpones it.)
- Green-tech stable - stabilize population (match growth and death rates) and live within the Solar energy budget while regenerating the Earth.
- Graceful decline - (growth rate less than death rate for awhile...) "Earth Stewardship" "Permaculture" I don't know where the people are supposed to have gone.
- "Atlantis" - i.e. doom. Personally I think this is the most likely, but I'm okay with being proven wrong on that.
- "Peak Wood" - no kidding. Peak Oil seems to have happened before with wood instead of oil, and could be responsible for bringing the Bronze Age to a close. Wow.
- Last but not least, Horticulture to the rescue! All the great things about Permaculture and a Neo-Horticultural society.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Visited the Farm for the First TIme
On Monday my friend Jesse was kind enough to give me a ride up the road meet Wendy, Peter, and Jeff at Lone Tree Farm.
The farm is set on the top of a ridge that forms part of the east side of Anderson Valley, about fifteen miles from the Pacific coast near the town of Boonville, California.
It was really beautiful. The ponies are really friendly. They start out a little shy and then come up and try to give you kisses.
The folks there seem really awesome and I'm looking forward to getting to know them. Peter plays bagpipes professionally (warning: link plays bagpipes!), and Jeff is working as a sort of intern. Wendy is in Europe for the next few months playing in a band so I won't get to hang out with her.
The cabin I'll be staying in is nice, nestled in a clearing in the redwood forest. I'm essentially renting the cabin for the summer and trying out the life. I'll be learning and helping out but I won't be starting any new projects of my own.
In addition to blogging about life on the farm I'll be working up a Permaculture design document for the property to stretch my Permie muscles.
All in all it should be a great summer and I'm really looking forward to it.
The farm is set on the top of a ridge that forms part of the east side of Anderson Valley, about fifteen miles from the Pacific coast near the town of Boonville, California.
It was really beautiful. The ponies are really friendly. They start out a little shy and then come up and try to give you kisses.
The folks there seem really awesome and I'm looking forward to getting to know them. Peter plays bagpipes professionally (warning: link plays bagpipes!), and Jeff is working as a sort of intern. Wendy is in Europe for the next few months playing in a band so I won't get to hang out with her.
The cabin I'll be staying in is nice, nestled in a clearing in the redwood forest. I'm essentially renting the cabin for the summer and trying out the life. I'll be learning and helping out but I won't be starting any new projects of my own.
In addition to blogging about life on the farm I'll be working up a Permaculture design document for the property to stretch my Permie muscles.
All in all it should be a great summer and I'm really looking forward to it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)